DEALS!

The NYC Economic Development Corp. signed property acquisition agreements with 126 Willets Point Blvd. and German Diaz Auto Repair, for a total 34k SF, bringing the amount of land now controlled by the City to 1.7M SF. Under the City's plan, 62 acres at Willets Point will be transformed from an industrial area into mixed-use.

Massey Knakal sold six properties: an industrial site at 211-217 Cook St. in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn for $1.2M cash (brokers:Mark Lively and Tom Donovan); mixed-use buildings at 329 and 331 Lexington Ave. for $5.1M cash (buyer: United Prime; seller: Estate of Titania Tarwid; broker: John Ciraulo); a two-story multi-use property at 102-28 43rd Ave. in Corona, Queens for $1.8M cash (broker: Swain Weiner); the 6.5k-SF 96-29 Rockaway Blvd. development site in Ozone Park, Queens for $600k cash (broker:Stephen Preuss); and an apartment building at 143-28 Cherry Ave. in Flushing for $1.8M cash (broker: Stephen Preuss).

Scholastic Book Fairs signed a lease for 90k SF of warehouse space and 6.2k SF of office space at 14 Applegate Dr. in Washington Township, NJ's Northeast Business Park. Lease details were not available, but Matrix Development Group is the landlord.

Fabrication Enterprises signed a renewal and expansion lease for a total of 57k SF at two properties in Cross Westchester Executive Park in Elmsford, NY: a six-year, 20k-SF renewal and 10-year, 16k-SF expansion at 3 Westchester Plaza; and a six-year, 21k-SF renewal at 250 Clearbrook Rd. Mack-Cali's Ivan Abry represented the ownership in-house.

Global Aerospace inked a new 12-year, 48k-SF lease at One Sylvan Way in the Mack-Cali Business Campus in Parsippany, NJ. The tenant was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle's Kenneth Flynn Jr.

The NYS Department of Taxation and Finance signed a 36k-SF renewal at 90 South Ridge St. in Rye Bridge, NY. CB Richard Ellis'William Cuddy Jr. and Kevin McCarthy handled the negotiations for owner Abbey Road Advisors.

Media Blasters signed a three-year, 7.5k-SF lease at 132 W. 26th St. The Kaufman Org.'s Steve n Kaufman and Barbara Raskob represented both parties in the transaction. Although the terms were undisclosed, the asking price was in the mid $30s PSF.

Cosmetics retailer Inglot signed a 10-year, 675-SF lease for its first U.S. store at 1592 Broadway, also known as 2 Times Square. Cushman & Wakefield's David Tricarico and Devon McBride represented the tenant, while Fred Rosenberg represented owner Sherwood Equities in-house.

Finance

CB Richard Ellis' James Gunning and Donna Falzarano arranged $6M in permanent fixed-rate mortgages for three industrial flex properties: 6 High Point Dr. in Wayne, NJ; and 7067 and 709 Executive Dr. in Valley Cottage, NY. Both originated separate 10-year mortgages for each site.

Construction & Development

The Mandell School tapped Aragon Construction and JRS Architect to build a 50k-SF state-of-the-art facility at 795 Columbus Ave., a 15-story apartment building under construction, and a 10k-SF learning center in another Columbus Square residential building. Work will begin in March '10, when the buildings are complete, and the punch list will be complete by September '10.

Sweetwater Construction Co. started construction on the 9.5k-SF Harrison Endo Surgical Center at 620 Essex St. in Harrison, NJ, which will be completed by August. The architect is Nadaskay Kopelson Architects.

John Gallin & Son completed construction of a 25k-SF brokerage facility for interdeal broker Tradition at 32 Old Slip in Lower Manhattan. The work, anticipated to take 16 weeks, was completed in 11. The project team also included TPG Architecture and MG Engineers.

Grand Meridian Printing opened its new 15k-SF HQ at 31-16 Hunters Point Ave. in Long Island City. The $3.3M project received $1.7M from the NYC Industrial Development Agency through its incentive program to acquire, renovated, and equip the 10k-SF building and construct a 5k-SF expansion.

Bergen County Special Services tapped DMR Architects to design the landscaping facility at the school's Paramus campus. The building will include 7.9k SF of classroom space, a 1k-SF greenhouse and 5k SF of landscaping and gardening areas.

Atlantic Development Group opened its 96-unit affordable senior rental development at 1926 Crotona Pkwy. in East Tremont, Bronx. The Highbridge CommunityDevelopment Corp., the non-profit partner in the development, will manage the property going forward. The property includes one and two-bedroom units.

Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers is completing architecture, design, and structural engineering for a new 7.3k-SF TGI Friday's at 1780 Gun Hill Rd. in the Bronx on behalf of the Briad Group. It also collaborated with Vornado, which owns the strip center. The 330-seat restaurant is due to be completed next month.

ALSO AROUND NEW YORK...

Exec Moves

Robert Conover joined Savitt Partners as CFO. Previously, he was chief accounting officer for The Related Cos. and spent more than a decade at Tishman Speyer Properties, where he held several senior-level positions. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

CB Richard Ellis promoted Matt Van Buren to executive managing director. He is responsible for all activities relating to the firm's operations at its 200 Park Ave. HQ, and joined the firm in '05 as managing director of the firm's Midtown brokerage. He previously worked with General Electric and Smith-Kline Bio-Science Laboratories, and holds degrees from the University of Albany.

Massey Knakal promoted Christoffer Brodhead, Meyrick Ferguson, Tom Gammino, Mark Lively and Swain Weiner to VP of sales. Christoffer joined the firm in '99 for the Midtown West/Clinton Hill territory, and has sold over 50 buildings for an aggregate $300M; Meyrick joined in '99 specializing in the Upper West Side, conducting 40 transactions for $250M; Tom joined in '03, has closed 55 transactions, and headed up the MTA's 14k-property portfolio evaluation; Mark joined the Brooklyn office in '02, and has executed 55 transactions totaling $80M; and Swain has covered Queens since '03 and has been a top-tier producer.

Janet Snyder joined international engineering firm Halcrow Yolles as principal, directing business development for the U.S. operations of their property and buildings group, which is currently working on such projects as the Las Vegas mega-casino for MGM Mirage. She was previously director of biz dev for Greyhawk, a construction consulting firm.

Adriana Acedo joined Atlantic Development Group as director of marketing and tenant relations for the firm's market-rate residential properties. She was previously with Ekstein Development,Prudential Douglas Elliman, and The Corcoran Group. She is a graduate of Columbia University.

Selena Quintal joined Russo Development as director of marketing. She was previously with Wyndham Worldwide and NAI James E. Hanson. She is a graduate of Indiana State University.

DMR Architects hired Daniel DiPoalo as director of business development, responsible for new business growth in the public and private sectors. He was previously with consulting engineering firm French and Parrello. He is a graduate of Villanova University.